A Night At The Movies

Being the good Corrs fan that I am, when I heard the new movie featuring Andrea Corr would be playing at the Cleveland International Film Festival, there was no question about whether or not I'd be attending. I bought the tickets last week, so Mom, Dad, Grandma, and I were all set to see The Boys & Girl From County Clare. We were on our way to Tower City Cinemas, which, appropriately enough, is right across the street from where I first saw The Corrs in concert one magical night last August.

I was pumped, this was going to be my first film festival experience! I tend to have an overactive imagination at times...okay, most of the time. I pictured a big, fancy, classy event. It wasn't a spectacle or anything, but it was cool.

It began with the hunt for the preferred parking for the festival, of course it wasn't where it was supposed to be, but we made due. We found a little valet garage and headed in.
It was funny actually waiting in a line to get into a movie, the only other times I've experienced that was for the Lord of the Rings and the Star Wars movies.

We got into the theater and made it to our seats right away. It was a really nice old theater, but because it was old, the design bugged me a bit. I'm a fan of sitting about halfway down or in the front of theaters, older theaters always seem to only have disabled seating in the back. Sucky, but oh well. We sat there and listened to the movie junkies running around to their friends and comparing the number of movies they had seen that day and giving their "expert" opinions on which ones were and weren't worth seeing. They rambled on and on for a while as I sat and thought to myself "I wonder if the film Zoe and I are working on will be showing here next year?"

Before the film started, there were a few speakers. One was a lady associated with the CIFF and the other two were sponsors. One of the sponsors grew up in Dublin and ran an Irish pub/restaurant in downtown Cleveland. It cracked me up listening to him talk as he kept pronouncing the word "film" as "fil-um." When they finished introducing the film, the exited to the back of the theater and out the door right next to where I was sitting. As the door closed behind them, I heard the one sponsor say to the Irish guy "Since when does 'film' have two syllables?" I busted up as Irish guy laughed. The lights went down and the projector whirred, illuminating the screen.

Ninety minutes, many laughs, and several "what'd they say?"s later (hey, the Irish talk fast), the credits rolled, the lights went up, and the audience applauded. As the crowd filtered out, we voted on our little ballots to say what we thought of the movie. It was funny, fun, highly enjoyable, and I got to see one of my favorite singers on a thirty foot high screen, do you even have to ask how I voted?

Halfway back to the van, we all suddenly realized we had to pee. Thus began the quest for the open bathroom! The four of us searched through three floors, bladders ready to burst, before a security guard told us they were all locked. It makes no sense that the Tower City mall closes all of their bathrooms at 9 PM, especially when there's a film festival going on. Plus the food court right next to the theaters was closed at 9, that seems insane. When you come out of a movie, you're hungry, they would've raked in the dough!
Anyway, we ended up running into a bathroom in a restaurant at the Ritz Carlton, which is connected to the mall. One word: swanky. I'm easily impressed when a bathroom has actual cloth towels and motion sensor toilets I guess. Too much information? Too bad, my blog. ;)

Great movie, great fun, great night. One way or another, I WILL be at next year's Cleveland International Film Festival. See ya there?

-Jacob